8.9 Earthquake hits Japan

[Trip]

Originally Posted by derf

Ok so air dropping water? To me (i am not a nuclear scientist) doesnt seem like it will be all that effective. Won't the water dissipate by the time it hits the reactor?

It's not, have you seen the videos? It's not doing shit.

To make a real difference, they need to get offsite power and get those pumps running again.

[KSGregman]

Dumping water on an overheated nuclear reactor with a compromised container vessel WILL do SOMETHING....it will likely get everyone aboard those helicopters a lethal dose of radiation and will ensure everyone of those helicopters get thrown into the Marianas Trench when this is over.

[Trip]

Originally Posted by KSGregman

Dumping water on an overheated nuclear reactor with a compromised container vessel WILL do SOMETHING....it will likely get everyone aboard those helicopters a lethal dose of radiation and will ensure everyone of those helicopters get thrown into the Marianas Trench when this is over.

true, lol

This TEPCO guy is the Iraqi Tank Man all over again. I wonder if they are related.

[tallywacker]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBXqiw6EJUk

[KSGregman]

Originally Posted by Trip

true, lol

This TEPCO guy is the Iraqi Tank Man all over again. I wonder if they are related.

It's a suicide mission...the Russians did it at Chernobyl....and the people aboard the helicopters were dead to the last man. Except I think the Russians were dropping sand rather than water.

[Trip]

Originally Posted by KSGregman

It's a suicide mission...the Russians did it at Chernobyl....and the people aboard the helicopters were dead to the last man. Except I think the Russians were dropping sand rather than water.

Chernobyl didn't use water as a moderator, they used graphite. So water wasn't as important for that reactor. Didn't really matter, the reactor was blown across the country side.

[goof2]

Originally Posted by KSGregman

It's a suicide mission...the Russians did it at Chernobyl....and the people aboard the helicopters were dead to the last man. Except I think the Russians were dropping sand rather than water.

I think they tried both water and earth. Here is were those vehicles lie today.

http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums...icle-graveyard

I foresee a similar vehicle graveyard in Japan's future.

[Trip]

Conditions may be improving. Hope this is the direction this accident keeps going in.

UPDATE AS OF 1:30 P.M. EDT, THURSDAY, MARCH 17:



Radiation readings at the Fukushima Daiichi site boundary were measured today at a lower level, between 2 and 3 millirem per hour.





UPDATE AS OF 11:35 A.M. EDT, THURSDAY, MARCH 17:



Fukushima Daiichi

The reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant are in stable condition and are being cooled with seawater, but workers at the plant continue efforts to add cooling water to fuel pools at reactors 3 and 4.



The status of the reactors at the site is as follows:



Reactor 1's primary containment is believed to be intact and the reactor is in a stable condition. Seawater injection into the reactor is continuing.



Reactor 2 is in stable condition with seawater injection continuing. The reactor's primary containment may not have been breached, Tokyo Electric Power Co. and World Association of Nuclear Operators officials said on Thursday.



Access problems at the site have delayed connection of a temporary cable to restore off-site electricity. The connection will provide power to the control rod drive pump, instrumentation, batteries and the control room. Power has not been available at the site since the earthquake on March 11.



Reactor 3 is in stable condition with seawater injection continuing. The primary containment is believed to be intact. Pressure in the containment has fluctuated due to venting of the reactor containment structure.



TEPCO officials say that although one side of the concrete wall of the reactor 4 fuel pool structure has collapsed, the steel liner of the pool remains intact, based on aerial photos of the reactor taken on March 17. The pool still has water providing some cooling for the fuel; however, helicopters dropped water on the reactor four times during the morning (Japan time) on March 17. Water also was sprayed at reactor 4 using high-pressure water cannons. Reactors 5 and 6 were both shut down before the quake occurred. Primary and secondary containments are intact at both reactors. Temperature instruments in the spent fuel pools at reactors 5 and 6 are operational, and temperatures are being maintained at about 62 degrees Celsius. TEPCO is continuing efforts to restore power at reactor 5.



Fukushima Daini

All four reactors at the Fukushima Daini plant have reached cold shutdown conditions with normal cooling being maintained using residual heat removal systems.

I have also seen readings of 65 psig inside unit 2 containment which could prove to be an indication it hasn't been breached.

[derf]

Hey I have another dumb question, keeping in mind that I'm not a nuclear scientist or anything like that, but if the big problem was running electrical lines, why isnt there a set of ready to hook up lines buried somewhere, where they can pull a couple of super industrial sized generators right up there and hook up, start running power, and go from there?

I mean I know that they cant fix every problem that may ever occur, but that kinda seems obvious.

[Papa_Complex]

As I understand it, they had exactly that. It was already hooked up to a set of super industrial sized generators, that got trashed in the tsunami. What you're talking about is just too big for it to be trucked in at a whim, even if the roads and infrastructure was still intact (which it wasn't), except maybe in a Godzilla movie.